Waymo to Work with Lyft on Self-Driving Car Tech

Alphabet’s self-driving car company Waymo will reportedly collaborate with ride-sharing service Lyft. The purpose of this association is to work on new autonomous vehicle technologies. On Sunday, the two companies also confirmed their partnership. They did not offer too many details regarding what will they be producing. However, they said that the aim of the collaboration is to create new self-driving pilots and products. In an official statement, Waymo said that the entire company is excited to begin working with Lyft. According to them, Lyft’s vision about the future of transportation fits Waymo’s plan. Together, they want to work towards making the roads safer and transportation more accessible.

A new partnership

In its turn, Lyft said almost the same things in a separate statement. The company said that at the moment, Waymo possesses the best self-driving car technology. So, a collaboration with them would only help further develop Lyft’s plans of making transportation safer and easier to access. According to reports, the idea of a collaboration first began spreading last year, during summer. Back then, Lyft founders Logan Green and John Zimmer had a talk with Waymo CEO John Krafcik. They all visited each other’s companies and it seems like they all liked what they saw. The deal announced yesterday has its roots in that conversation.

It is worth noting that Zimmer said that he is planning to replace all the company’s vehicles with self-driving ones by 2021. However, there are no plans out there about making its own vehicles. So, in order for this dream to come true, Lyft signed partnerships with other companies like General Motors. The latter invested about $500 million into Lyft back in 2015. Two years later, the company is testing its own self-driving Chevy Bolts in San Francisco.

The self-driving car business

Waymo has also been testing the waters. The company has been offering rides in self-driving vehicles to the locals of Phoenix. Moreover, at some point in the future, the company is planning to make its own ride-sharing network. We will see where this partnership will go from now on, but one thing is certain. Uber should watch out from now on. The latter now must battle two of its main rivals, and they seem to have joined forces.